New dust covers for 800

[StickJock]

I just made a couple of dust covers for my 800s.  What do you think?

 

I used some scrap blue canvas that I had.  Instead of cutouts for the cables on the right side, I just cut a couple of slits to make a single, wide flap.  That way, the ports are covered when not in use, and it just sits up on the plugs when they are present.

 

I ironed creases into the cover to mimic the sharp lines of the 800.

 

I'm thinking about maybe getting some laser printer Iron-On transfer sheets to put an Atari Fuji logo on the top.  Right now, I am considering either a white logo, or maybe a traditional rainbow logo.

 

 

 

[koolmoecraig]

I think they look great!  Nice to be able to leave the controllers connected.  I would use plain white logo and honestly if you could do brown canvas it would be better i think. The more vintage it looks the better.

[+MrFish]

The plain white Atari logo would look good. You could put the machine model text on it too.

 

Alternatively, you could use the "READY" prompt or, maybe more appropriately for those machines, the "MEMO PAD" text.

Although, maybe "MEMO PAD" alone would be enough, rather than "ATARI COMPUTER - MEMO PAD".

 

 

 

[jamm]

4 hours ago, StickJock said:

I just made a couple of dust covers for my 800s.  What do you think?

 

I used some scrap blue canvas that I had.  Instead of cutouts for the cables on the right side, I just cut a couple of slits to make a single, wide flap.  That way, the ports are covered when not in use, and it just sits up on the plugs when they are present.

 

I ironed creases into the cover to mimic the sharp lines of the 800.

 

I'm thinking about maybe getting some laser printer Iron-On transfer sheets to put an Atari Fuji logo on the top.  Right now, I am considering either a white logo, or maybe a traditional rainbow logo.

 

 

 

Funny - I was just thinking earlier today that I should ask if anyone was up for making some simple covers.   Yours turned out very nicely!

 

[StickJock]

I used blue canvas as we had a scrap of it that was just big enough to make two out of.  With the stay-at-home order, this was all made from stuff on hand.

 

I gave it some more thought and realized that I can't really print a white logo.  Kind of obvious when you think about it.  Yellow would look good on blue, though.

 

I was also thinking maybe replicating the Atari 800 label on the cartridge flap and iron it on to the same spot on the cover.  I have some small scraps of leftover canvas to do some tests on.  I'm not much of an artist, so I would have to find samples online to use.

 

Should I post the dust cover pattern that I made?

 

[StickJock]

5 hours ago, koolmoecraig said:

if you could do brown canvas it would be better i think. The more vintage it looks the better.

So to be period correct for the 80s, maybe I should go with pastels?  Or bright Miami Vice colors?  ?

[_The Doctor__]

Nope, natural tones were the colors for 800's (earthy so to speak, and strong, Atari Fonts, Rainbow), early to mid 80's (dark/light contrasts,silvers,rainbow,whites,darkest of browns), later 80's and 90's (blue metal greys, neon brights and pastels, mixed with all that came before)...

Edited May 23, 2020 by _The Doctor__

[+MrFish]

I came up with this logo idea for the Incognito, a long time ago; something to be used as a splash screen. Candle was interested in using it, but as a design for the PCB silkscreen instead. I never got around to making up a hi-res version for that; but... even though it's just graphics 8 resolution, the bare logo might give you some idea what a white-on-blue 800 logo would look like on your covers.

 

Incognito Design (splash screen)

 

 

 

800 Logo

 

 

 

Edited May 23, 2020 by MrFish

[jamm]

6 hours ago, StickJock said:

Should I post the dust cover pattern that I made?

 

That would be great!  I'm thinking that I'd have to modify any cover I'd use in order allow for the FujiNet to be left in place on the side, but that should be a very easy change.

[mimo]

7 hours ago, StickJock said:

 

 

Should I post the dust cover pattern that I made?

 

Yes please 

[griff3125]

They look great, love the fold out flaps to keep the cables connected.

Maybe add a flap/cut like that for the front joystick ports, possible divided by 2 so it's not awkward with only one stick connected.

I've got the original 800 cover which is basically rendered unusable with the connections, I really like what you've done.

 

[StickJock]

It's a simple 3-piece pattern.  The left & right are the same, and the middle piece wraps around from the back, over the top and down the front.  If you are using fabric that has a good & bad side, like vinyl or corduroy, be sure to flip the side pattern over so that you get a left & right.

 

I made the pattern by taking measurements off of the 800 at each of the vertices.  4.5" tall in back, 6 " across the top, 2.5" tall in front, 12.5" front-to-back, 16" wide, etc.

 

The pattern as shown includes 1/2" seam allowances & 1/2" hem.  You could probably reduce the seam allowance to 3/8" if you wanted to.

 

The body is 17" wide x 21" long.  So after assembly, it is 16" wide to match the 800.

The flap slots are 2" tall, and are 3/4" & 7.5" from the back corner (measured & cut after assembly).

 

After cutting out the pieces, I marked the inside of the side pieces 1/2" from the edge.  Then, placing the body with the outside up & the side piece with the inside up (good sides together, with markings on side piece showing), I sewed them together.  Start by aligning the bottom back corners of a side & body together.  The back edge of the side piece should match up with the long edge of the body piece.  Sew along the marked line until you get to the next line.  Then comes the tricky bit.  You want to rotate the top piece so that the top edge lines up with the bottom piece (I do this rotate by lifting the presser foot while the needle is down in the intersection), and sew to the next corner.  Keep doing this until the side piece is sewn to the entire length of the body.  Then, repeat for the other side.  Now, hem the bottom all of the way around.  You sewed it inside out, so now turn it around.  I think I ironed it at this point to get the hems flat & make the corners crisp.  I also ironed creases into the body to replicate the lines of the 800, but that is entirely optional.  I then cut the 2" slots into the port side (well, starboard side, actually, but you know what I mean!?) and edged them with bias tape. 

 

I could have matched up my thread color better, but out of laziness I went with a color that I already had a bobbin wound for.  As I said, this was all made from scrap on hand, including a couple of ~10" scrap pieces of bias tape.

 

For our non-US friends, multiply all of the above measurements by 2.54 to convert to cm.  ?

 

 

 

 

Edit:  The grid the pattern is sitting on is 1" squares.

 

Edited May 23, 2020 by StickJock
Clarify the size of the background grid in the pic

[StickJock]

14 hours ago, griff3125 said:

Maybe add a flap/cut like that for the front joystick ports, possible divided by 2 so it's not awkward with only one stick connected.

 

I plugged in a joystick and there wasn't really any problem with the cover still fitting.  The cover is wide enough, and the plugs are close enough to the middle, that it just lifts slightly where the joystick plug holds it up.  Still, you are correct, that one/two/four flaps could be put in the front for the plugs.